The traumatic impact of Covid-19 on students persuaded John Swinney to reverse the downgrading of SQA results and stick with teachers’ estimates, he said this morning.

Mr Swinney’s dramatic announcement yesterday came after a week of controversy, centring around data which showed students in poorer areas were more likely to have their results downgraded.

On BBC Radio Scotland this morning, he said that “having listened to the reaction of young people to those results, I concluded that we had not taken enough account of the trauma and the difficulty created by Covid in the lives of those young people”.

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Mr Swinney explained that “the conclusion I came to, having listened to the heartfelt pleas of young people and the anguish experienced by young people, was that I had to take into account, not just the need to maintain standards, but to recognise that 2020 is an absolutely unique and extraordinary year in which many people in our country have experienced suffering and our young people have experienced suffering in a whole variety of different ways - and that’s why I explained the change of position that I took yesterday to Parliament”.

Mr Swinney also said: “The approach that had been taken, which was a perfectly fair model the SQA had put in place, emphasised heavily the importance of maintaining standards from previous years to this year.”

He indicated that a review of the SQA results controversy by Professor Mark Priestley would “come back with initial recommendations within a period of five weeks, because we obviously have to prepare for the certification of achievements in the forthcoming school year”.

The education secretary was asked on air by a student at Monifieth High School about contingency plans in case the 2021 SQA exams are cancelled or postponed.

Mr Swinney replied that “the SQA will issue a consultation later on this week on various changes to the approach to the exams”.

He added that “obviously any issues that arise from Professor Priestley’s review will be applied very swiftly” in case of “a situation that learning is disrupted and potentially the exams disrupted”.